In the process of painting, the painter, whether a professional paint contractor or a home owner, places the container of paint on a surface and dips the brush or paint roller into the container. Since the container is bulky and prone to spilling, thereby causing damage and requiring much time wasted in clean up, the paint container is moved infrequently. This necessitates constant travel by the painter from the work area to the paint container, which is tiring and inefficient. Also, the paint container is usually placed on the floor to reduce the possibility of spillage. This location is inconvenient for the painter who must bend over to apply paint to the brush or roller. An alternative is for the painter to hold the paint container in one hand and paint with the other. This has the obvious disadvantages of restricting the painter's movement and being extremely tiring. Furthermore, the painter's accessory tools and equipment (sandpaper, wipes, tape, spackle, etc.) and personal items (beverage, cigarettes, ash tray, etc.) are not located near the work area and the painter must leave the work area to get these materials.
The only prior art of which the applicant is aware which is directed to a movable paint stand is U.S. Pat. No. 2,580,623 issued to Wahl in which there is disclosed a stand to support a paint pail, the stand being mounted on a carriage having rollers.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,290,450 issued to Renschin discloses a telescoping tube to support a horizontal rod. The rod takes the place of a man in holding paper to be applied to a ceiling so that a single person can perform the papering. The horizontal rod can be replaced by a pan to hold a bucket of paint to facilitate dipping a brush in the paint when painting a ceiling.
Also of interest to the present invention are the following:
______________________________________ Inventor(s) U.S. Pat. No. ______________________________________ Conger 2,284,801 Hotton 2,981,549 Shackel 3,170,709 Swick, Jr. 3,759,599 Hines 4,119,044 Schreiner 4,363,496 Remington et al 4,535,897 Teachout 4,537,421 Cunningham 4,679,805 Betts et al 4,690,417 Liegel 4,715,573 Coote 4,728,065 Grow D 183,525 Corini D 230,257 Salsgiver D 232,166 Daventry D 271,733 Luyk et al D 289,459 Bettress D 296,143 ______________________________________
These references disclose a variety of movable carts and tool stands. However, there is no suggestion that these be used for paint or paint equipment.
Accordingly, it can be seen that there exists a need for a device for use by painters which can be easily moved to the immediate work area, which holds the paint container at a convenient height so the container is less liable to be spilled, which also holds tools, accessory equipment and personal items, and which may be folded for ease of storage and transport.